Another Point Taken by Hammers

West Ham United achieved another noteworthy result in Saturday’s early kick-off, as they drew 1-1 with Manchester City in Stratford.

Substitute Manuel Lanzini scored the equaliser in the game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last weekend but David Moyes decided to go with an unchanged team, as he looked to build on the last performance.

West Ham carried the momentum gained from last week’s London derby with them into this game and started brightly before grabbing the advantage with only eighteen minutes gone. Michail Antonio had obviously taken inspiration from Lanzini’s equaliser against Spurs and produced an equally impressive effort of his own, as he was on the end of Vladimír Coufal’s cross to beat Ederson with a spectacular scissor-kick.

The former Nottingham Forest man could have put his side further in front just eight minutes later but Eric Garcia spotted the danger with enough time to thwart him.

Moyes had employed a back five for the game at Arsenal on 19 September and has stuck with that formation ever since as it has proved very effective in recent matches and it was doing so again here with Josep Guardiola’s men struggling to cope.

To be fair, the Hammers dominated the opening forty five minutes and perhaps should have led by a bigger margin as they went into the dressing rooms for the break.

Whilst Moyes would have been happy with the home side’s start to the match, Guardiola clearly wasn’t and he introduced Phil Foden for Sergio Agüero for the second-half.

It turned out to be an inspired decision as it paid off just six minutes after the action had recommenced, although the Irons were still playing well you are hardly likely to keep City off the scoresheet for too long and that’s exactly what happened as Foden picked up João Cancelo’s cross, turning and shooting past Łukasz Fabiański.

Just two minutes after the goal, West Ham suffered another blow as Moyes had to make an enforced change. Antonio seemed to have a problem and so was replaced by Andriy Yarmolenko.

The Ukrainian, who had played a part in his side’s second goal last weekend wasn’t having the best of games here. Evidence of this was shown when he had the chance to put his side back in front but he wasted it by sending his left-footed effort high and wide shortly after Kyle Walker had tested Fabianski from long-range but thankfully, it didn’t trouble the Pole.

West Ham’s second change was made on sixty nine minutes when Sébastien Haller came on in place of Jarrod Bowen.

The visitors have had a mixed start to the season and were putting their opponents under considerable pressure as they searched for only a third win of the campaign but the hosts were resilient and weren’t going to let them find a way through.

When Kevin De Bruyne entered the fray, West Ham thought that they would be in for a tough end to the game. He set Raheem Sterling away but Fabianski was alert and prevented any danger.

The Citizens had one last chance to take all the points but fortunately for Moyes and his team, Riyad Mahrez was unable to beat Fabianski and another vital point was secured.

With the run of form that the Hammers are currently on, who knows what result they will be able to claim next Saturday when they travel to Anfield to face current Champions Liverpool.